NEWS & EVENTS

Dordt College News

GPAC Softball Poll Released

(Tuesday, January 21; Sioux Center, Iowa) The Great Plains Athletic Conference has released its preseason softball coaches’ poll for the 2014 season.

The Defenders are 10th in the poll released Monday, January 20 by the Great Plains Athletic Conference hoe office. Dordt took 23 points in the balloting done by the 11 coaches in the league.

Dordt posted a 6-33 overall record last season with a 2-18 mark in the GPAC. The Defenders return seven players from last year’s team. Bethany Dykstra batting .271 with three homeruns and 10 runs batted in to lead the Defenders and Ashton Beaird had eight doubles with six homeruns, 18 runs batted in and a .258 batting average.

The Defenders will open the 2014 softball season on February 21 and 22 at a tournament hosted by Oklahoma Baptist in Shawnee, Oklahoma.

Hastings, the 2013 GPAC regular season champion, was awarded six first place votes in the poll and is the preseason pick to repeat. Morningside, the 2013 postseason tournament champion, took four first place votes and is picked second.

The GPAC softball season will consist of 20 games (10 doubleheaders) and concludes with a postseason tournament held May 1-3 at the Smith Softball Complex in Hastings, Nebraska.

Points in the poll were assigned on a 10-1 basis and coaches could not vote for their own team.